Getting Affiliates to Sell Your Stuff (Part 1)

Getting affiliates to promote your products can be easier money than you could make on your own because…

– They attract buyers you otherwise never would have received

– Those buyers can become repeat buyers. It’s easier to sell to someone who’s purchased before.

– Your earnings from affiliates is essentially free money – minus the work you put in to attract and work with the affiliates.

“How to recruit an army of affiliates who are just waiting to promote your product! Blah blah blah.”

Did that headline look familiar? One of the myths about getting affiliates to promote your products is that they’re just out there waiting for you to call them to go to work. No such luck. Affiliates are hit with a lot of different offers to promote – and the better the affiliate, the more offers they receive.

So how do you find and recruit good affiliates? We’ll cover that in detail. First, let me share…

The Internet marketing community will tell you it’s super easy to get affiliates. Not true. The reality is that it’s work. But that’s also good news for you because 99 out of 100 product owners either won’t bother with the work or they won’t know what to do to get affiliates. That’s why you’ll enjoy a distinct advantage over them by the time you finish this article.

To get affiliates, you’ll need to convince them that you and your product are worth promoting. You’ll need to build trust. And you’ll need patience as well. Potential affiliates often won’t say yes the first time you ask, or they’ll say yes but then they’ll get distracted and they’ll go promote something else unless you follow up.

The challenges of recruiting affiliates:

Again, there is no army of affiliates waiting to promote your product. Whenever I hear that phrase, “army of affiliates,” I picture a zombie army standing just outside my door, waiting for their marching orders. But I’ve been in Internet Marketing for many years now, and I have yet to open my door and find that army, no matter how many products I produce.

Announcing is not enough.

Simply announcing that you offer an affiliate program is not enough. A common myth among new marketers, no doubt propagated by seasoned marketers – is that all you need to do is create a product and announce your affiliate program and the affiliates will come. Not true.

You’ve got to grab attention.

When you want people to sell things for you, you’ve got to get their attention. Remember, affiliates have lives, too. They’re busy with their day to day stuff as well as running their own businesses, and you’re trying to add more work to their already busy day. You’ll need to grab their attention and get them to realize that promoting your product is well worth their time. And there are things you can do to make it easier for them, as well.

You’ve got to educate your potential affiliates.

Affiliates may not know anything about your product or how your program is relevant to their audience. Your product may be different from anything they’re currently promoting, and you’ll need to educate them on how your product is a great fit for them.

Affiliates have a thousand and one choices. Daily.

Good affiliates get approached all the time. How do you stand apart from the crowd? You’ve got to make your program seem so much better/juicier/more valuable/more suitable than any other.

You might want to be choosy.

When an affiliate promotes your products, they represent you. But what if they’re not the sort of person you want your name and your products to be associated with? Or what if their style is completely different from yours? For example, if they’re super hypey and your not, you might not want them to promote for you. Look for those affiliates who are the cream of the crop. Think of them as your sales force – you wouldn’t hire just anyone to sell your product.

The best affiliates are the hardest to win over.

Realize that the best affiliates are approached non-stop night and day. Imagine if everyone was trying to get a piece of you – what would you do? You’d be cautious, and you’d filter all of these offers in some way so that you wouldn’t have to deal with them all. Be prepared to work to get to these affiliates.

More is not necessarily better.

Only a handful of your affiliates will make the vast majority of your sales. That’s why you’ll want to spend your time recruiting a few good affiliates who sell like crazy, rather than trying to recruit massive numbers of affiliates who do nothing.

Now that you know some of the myths and challenges to recruiting and using affiliates, in tomorrow’s article I’ll share where you will actually find your future affiliates, and how to approach them.